01 The record
DECODE shows the four images in the order 3, 1, 2, 4. The archive’s scan banners (AGS_EST_LEG_1563_0572_0001 to 0004) and the pencil numbers on the leaves give the true order:
| Archive page | DECODE image | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | P2 | Shelfmark; “al príncipe”; the first draft, with many deletions and interlinear additions |
| 2 | P3 | End of the first draft, then a second draft, again headed “al príncipe” |
| 3 | P1 | End of the second draft; no date, signature or address |
| 4 | P4 | Blank; show-through only |
Nothing on any surface is enciphered. Every line is ordinary Spanish in an untidy secretary hand.
02 What the drafts say
Openings of the two drafts, with abbreviations expanded in brackets and deleted words left out. This is a reading of the key passages, not a full edition. Both drafts are heavily corrected, and several abbreviations and later lines are not securely read.
Draft 1. demás de los cambios que hasta aquí se an hecho por n[uest]ro mandado con Antonio Fucar, de que os hab[em]os avisado con los correos pasados, a convenido, por estar en lo que estamos, hazer este cambio de CX U DCC LXX d[ucad]os de a LXV gruesos …
Draft 2. demás de los cambios que hasta aquí se an hecho, a convenido hazer otro de CX U DCC LXX d[ucad]os de a LXV gruesos …
In English: “besides the exchanges made so far by our order with Anton Fugger, of which we advised you by the last posts, it has been necessary, as things stand, to make this exchange of 110,770 ducats at 65 groats …”. Further on, the second draft asks that the money be repaid “el principal con intereses a los plazos” (principal with interest at the terms), and that the cédulas be “cumplidas, guardadas y observadas”. A payment date “a los vj de …” is given, without a year.
- Sender and recipient. “Por nuestro mandado” and “os habemos avisado” are the royal first person plural, and “al príncipe” is Prince Philip, who ran the government in Spain while his father was away. This is a minute of Charles V (or his secretaries) for a letter to his son.
- Antonio Fucar is Anton Fugger (1493–1560), head of the Augsburg firm, always written Antonio Fúcar in Spanish documents.
- The sum. CX U DCC LXX is 110 × 1,000 + 770 = 110,770. The U-shaped sign is the usual Spanish sign for thousands (calderón). “De a LXV gruesos” reckons the ducat in Flemish groats. The reading of the unit is tentative, but it points to a loan raised north of the Alps and repaid in Spain.
03 Why it is not 1527
Philip was born at Valladolid on 21 May 1527, five months before the date DECODE gives. The Emperor’s letters to “el príncipe” about asientos with the Fuggers belong to Philip’s regencies of 1543–1548 and 1551–1554. He stopped being “the Prince” in July 1554, when he became King of Naples on his marriage to Mary Tudor. The drafts give neither year nor place, and the loan has not been matched to a particular Fugger asiento. Ramón Carande’s Carlos V y sus banqueros, which lists them, was not consulted.
The scans carry the cited shelfmark in the archive’s own banner, so this is not a mix-up of images on DECODE. Galende Díaz’s list, drawn partly from Carmona’s Tratado de criptografía (1894), gives this reference for the Burgo letter. Either the reference is wrong, or it uses an older numbering of the legajo.
04 The Burgo letter: what was searched
- DECODE: R9970 is the only record for Burgo, Gattinara or this shelfmark. It has no associated records.
- PARES:
EST,LEG,1563,572and the neighbouring folios return nothing, because the legajo is not itemised online. “Burgo Gattinara” finds only Maximilian’s power to Gattinara and Andrés de Burgo, 2 September 1509 (PTR leg. 56 no. 50). - Calendar of State Papers, Spain III.2, 26–31 October 1527: no Burgo letter. No. 225 (Sánchez, Venice, 27 October) mentions Burgo’s reports from Ferrara.
- Tomokiyo, Ciphers during the reign of Charles V (cached copies): Burgo appears in 1511, not in 1527.
- Galende Díaz 1994, pp. 159–178: the citation on p. 163 only; the seven cipher tables in the appendix do not include a Burgo key.
- Carmona 1894 (BNE digital copy 0000238116): could not be opened (HTTP 403).
The ciphered Burgo letter may still exist in Estado, but finding it needs the archive’s inventory or a visit. Nothing on R9970 bears on its cipher.
05 Sources
- Archivo General de Simancas, Estado leg. 1563 fol. 572, scans 0001–0004, via DECODE R9970 (login required for the images).
- Juan Carlos Galende Díaz, “La escritura cifrada durante el reinado de los Reyes Católicos y Carlos V”, Cuadernos de Estudios Medievales 18–19 (1994), pp. 159–178, p. 163 (PDF).
- Calendar of State Papers, Spain, III.2, ed. Gayangos (1877), October 1527, 26–31.
- Satoshi Tomokiyo, Ciphers during the reign of Emperor Charles V.
- PARES, AGS PTR leg. 56 no. 50 (Burgo and Gattinara, 1509).
Notes, image manifest and the solution log are in the repository folder targets/burgo1527/.